The pressure in the air was palpable.
Tatsuya stood at the edge of the fractured rooftop, his sharp blue eyes fixed on the confrontation unfolding ahead. Ten meters apart, two legendary figures—Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, and his estranged protégé, Orochimaru—faced one another in utter silence. Their battle hadn't yet resumed, but the weight of unspoken intentions hung thick.
The eerie calm was deceptive. Tatsuya could sense it in the air—the dense, suffocating swirl of chakra barely held in check. Beneath Orochimaru's half-lidded gaze, something vile stirred, ready to spring. Sarutobi's weathered face, lined with guilt and conflict, betrayed hesitation more than fury.
It wasn't a battle of fire and fury yet.
It was an unraveling.
> So this is the cost of sentiment, Tatsuya thought, narrowing his gaze. The hesitation of a teacher who still mourns the path his student chose.
His breath slowed. His senses sharpened. The Divine Pickup System stirred faintly, not as an entity, but as a refined instinct. His chakra perception adjusted—sharper, tighter, tuned to the smallest flickers of conflict.
They hadn't truly engaged yet. That meant the battlefield was still ripe.
Tatsuya's hands moved.
Three shuriken spiraled toward the combatants—arcing with precision, not aggression.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Orochimaru's wrist flicked. His kunai deflected the incoming steel effortlessly, barely glancing at the masked observer in the distance.
A grin twitched at the corners of Tatsuya's lips, though it never reached his eyes.
> Not enough to provoke them… but enough to push things forward.
And then—
Boom.
Orochimaru's chakra erupted.
The air convulsed. A pulse of raw malevolence rippled through the ground, sending loose debris scattering. The stone underfoot trembled as chakra surged through Orochimaru's lithe frame, coiling like a serpent ready to strike.
> [Chakra acquisition: +100]
[Chakra acquisition: +100]
[Combat insight: +50]
Tatsuya inhaled slowly, feeling the flicker of chakra respond within his own system. The energy was subtle—transferred not from proximity, but from perception. The moment battle commenced, fragments of potential flowed into him like instinctive understanding.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Sarutobi's voice rang out sharply.
He slammed both palms against the ground.
Boom.
Smoke exploded outward. A towering figure emerged—Enma, the Monkey King, clad in armored fur and radiating a primal strength that stood in stark contrast to Orochimaru's serpentine grace.
"Sarutobi... who's the enemy this time?" Enma's deep voice echoed. But as his gaze landed on Orochimaru, the tension shifted. "Him? Again?"
Sarutobi's lips were thin. "This time… there's no saving him."
> Even Enma hesitates, Tatsuya noted. No one walks away unscarred when kin turns to ruin.
And then it began.
A flick of Orochimaru's hand, and the room became a den of snakes.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
Dozens of serpents uncoiled from Orochimaru's sleeve, hissing as they lunged with terrifying precision.
Sarutobi responded with pure resolve—chakra flaring around him, fists meeting scale and fang in brutal, close-quarters combat. Enma transformed into a staff, extending Sarutobi's reach as he struck back with practiced fury.
> [Chakra acquisition: +200]
[Chakra acquisition: +200]
[Combat insight: +100]
[Technique acquired: Hidden Shadow Snake Hands]
[Technique Experience: +1000 | Current Level: 2 (0/1000)]
Tatsuya's fingers twitched by his side.
The sheer grotesquery of Orochimaru's jutsu stirred something primal in him. Not fear—fascination. There was elegance in the corruption. Precision in the madness.
> You turned your own body into a weapon. A forge of serpents. That's not insanity—that's mastery.
He didn't move yet. Not until he saw the window.
But Orochimaru wasn't invincible. He was being pressed—Sarutobi and Enma surged around him, coordinated and relentless. Fist met fang. Staff cracked scales. Orochimaru danced at the edge of their onslaught, slippery and elusive, but cornered all the same.
> Still too balanced, Tatsuya thought. They're holding back. Both of them.
He stepped forward.
Time to tip the scale.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique."
The jutsu burst from his lungs like a cannon of flame. It seared the air, igniting the battlefield with blistering heat. Even from meters away, the blaze scorched the edges of broken tile and metal, warping the ground.
Everyone scattered.
Boom.
The explosion flattened half the rooftop. Smoke churned into the sky like the breath of a summoned beast.
Tatsuya's chakra burned low—but steady. Controlled. Just enough to provoke.
Orochimaru stood amid the aftermath, robes smoldering, golden eyes narrowed at the new arrival. "So… Sarutobi has another hound?"
His voice was cold. Icy. Calculating.
And yet—he was impressed.
Tatsuya felt the weight of that gaze and met it with silence.
> No need for words. I'm not your equal yet. But I'm part of this board now.
Orochimaru turned his attention back to Sarutobi. A thin, sardonic smile curled across his pale lips. "You've aged, sensei."
With a fluid movement, he drew a scroll and unfurled it in the wind.
Boom.
A massive shuriken appeared in his hand—then multiplied.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
Tatsuya's eyes widened slightly as the metal storm began.
The shuriken screamed through the air, splitting and replicating, until the sky itself was a razor-field. It was more than lethal—it was tactical saturation.
Sarutobi reacted instantly, his own hand signs weaving like a practiced dance.
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"
Dozens of spinning weapons clashed mid-air, metal-on-metal shrieks echoing like a thousand war cries. Fragments rained down in showers of sparks.
> He copied the very jutsu taught to him and turned it against its master, Tatsuya mused. Poetic.
The ground below shook again.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!"
"Water Style: Water Barrier!"
Two walls—stone and liquid—rose in unison, cast by Sarutobi's companions, shielding them from the steel storm.
> [Technique acquired: Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique]
[Technique Experience: +1000 | Current Level: 2 (0/1000)]
[Earth Affinity: +20]
[Water Affinity: +20]
[Skill Experience: Earth Flow Wall +50]
[Skill Experience: Water Barrier +50]
Golden threads shimmered at the edge of Tatsuya's senses. The system translated them through his chakra intuition—like pieces falling into place. Knowledge crystallized where once there was only theory.
He let out a breath.
> Finally. Now we begin.
Orochimaru wasn't retreating.
Sarutobi wasn't relenting.
And now, the battlefield recognized him—Tatsuya—as more than an observer.
He was part of the calculus now. A variable Orochimaru would not ignore. A presence Sarutobi could no longer shield.
Under his mask, Tatsuya allowed the smallest smile to form.
> Keep fighting, he thought. Show me the depth of what it means to walk the line between genius and monstrosity.
Come on. Hit the workers.
Let the golden light rain.
---